Many different machines are used for digging, dozing, transporting or otherwise manipulating all manner of materials. Those skilled in the art will be familiar with machine and implement technologies specialized for different material types such as various different types of soil, gravel, sand, and hard rock substrates. Mining, construction, forestry and other industries rely for their continued existence in the modern age upon availability of purpose-built machinery for various tasks and types of materials. While engineers have experimented with machinery and techniques for efficiently manipulating materials for literally centuries, for certain applications, there remains ample room for improvement.
In the case of hard rock mining, or tunnel boring through solid rock for road building or other large-scale construction practices, the state of the art has long been the so-called “drill-and-blast” technique. In drill-and-blast, holes are drilled through a rock substrate, then packed with explosives which are then detonated to break apart the solid material into more manageable pieces. The drill-and-blast technique is relatively inprecise, not to mention the various disadvantages that might be expected with regard to handling and use of explosives. In the case of certain softer rock materials such as chalk various direct boring machines have been proposed over the years. European Patent EP2499333 to Wilmer et al. is directed to a road header of generally typical design for use in mining that could apparently be used in a range of material types, with a machine frame and a cutting device positioned on a swiveling arm at an end of the machine frame.